Indiana men’s swimming and diving programs traveled to Evanston, Illinois on Saturday for a dual-meet at Northwestern’s Norris Aquatics Center.
No. 5 Indiana won with a score of 173 to No. 24 Northwestern’s score of 120.
After beating the University of Kentucky on Oct. 6, Indiana continued its season by breaking three pool records.
“To be able to beat Northwestern in their home facility puts us on a great path to accomplishing our championship season goals,” associate head coach Cory Chitwood said.
As members of the team begin to qualify for the postseason, championship season goals are beginning to be achieved. To qualify, swimmers must finish under a certain time and divers must register a certain score.
Junior Brendan Burns set a pool record in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:43.18 and senior Gabriel Fantoni qualified for the postseason in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 46.09.
Seniors Bruno Blaskovic and Gabriel Fantoni, junior Brendan Burns and senior Van Mathias won the 200-meter medley relay with a time of 1:26.74. Mathias and Blaskovic also won the 400-meter freestyle relay with freshman Rafael Miroslaw and sophomore Gavin Wright with a time of 2:56.54.
Burns and Blaskovic tied for the team-high in meet wins, each winning three apiece.
Senior Jacob Steele posted a 47.71 in the 100-meter backstroke and sophomore Maxwell Reich finished with a time of 2:00.01 in the 200-meter backstroke.
Just a week after winning the 10-km Champions Cup at the Las Vegas Open Water Championships, junior Michael Brinegar won both the 1,000-meter freestyle with a time of 9:06.41 and the 500-meter freestyle with a 4:27.31.
While it’s still early in the season, the tally of individual and team wins is a result of hard work.
“During this early time in the season, our focus is on hard work and race endurance,” Chitwood said. “To get this result is a testament to what this team is doing daily in the pool and weight room.”
The diving program worked towards qualifying more divers for the postseason after six divers qualified at their first meet.
On Saturday, three more divers received NCAA postseason qualifying scores. Freshman Quinn Henninger qualified with a 1-meter score of 360.70 and a 3-meter score of 350.00. Freshman Carson Tyler’s 1-meter score of 345.60 and his 3-meter score of 408.00, and senior Cole VanDevender’s 1-meter score of 369.00 qualified them for the postseason.
In Tyler’s first dual meet he set a pool record in the 3-meter dive with a 408.00, beating the previous 396.85 standard set by Purdue’s Joey Cifelli in 2016. Tyler also won two golds and one silver medal at last week’s Unión Americana de Natación Pan American Diving Championships.
VanDevender set his personal best in the 1-meter dive and won the event. His previous best score was 359.15 which he set Nov. 11, 2019.
Head diving coach Drew Johansen was pleased by the quality of dives at the meet, especially for being early in the season.
"The competitive drive our group has shown made a difference for us to be able to put up some really big scores," Johansen said.
Indiana swimming and diving now turns to focus on preparing for a two-day quad meet with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Penn State and Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 29 and 30.
